Thursday, January 16, 2025
Today is the third day of the Texas Legislature’s 89th regular session.
The new Speaker of the House, Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) announced his senior staff late Wednesday afternoon.
Robert (“Bob”) Duncan was named Chief of Staff. Duncan is well known in Texas politics. He represented Lubbock’s District 28 in the Texas Senate from 1996 to 2014 and District 84 in the Texas House from 1992 to 1996. He was Chancellor of the Texas Tech University System from 2014 to 2018.
The other members of the senior staff are:
- Zak Covar – Deputy Chief of Staff
- Tracy King – Senior Advisor. King was a member of the Texas House, representing Uvalde and surrounding areas for more than 30 years.
- Matt Crow – District Affairs Coordinator.
- Paige Holzheauser – Director of the Office of the Speaker
- Cait Wittman – Communications Director
The Senate did not meet today. It will meet again next Wednesday, January 22, at 1p.
The House met for 35 minutes. It was supposed to consider a “housekeeping resolution,” but postponed that discussion until it meets again next Wednesday at 2p.
On the TLR legislative front, there is news to report.
Senator Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston) filed SB 779, relating to common law public nuisance claims.
If you follow TLR on social media or read our newsletter, The Advocate, you know that we are concerned about “public nuisance” lawsuits. About ten years ago, some governmental entities (states, cities and counties) began working with contingent-fee plaintiff lawyers to file “public nuisance” lawsuits to address public policy issues. They are using the courts to achieve policy goals they cannot achieve at state capitals or in the U.S. Congress.
It is not much of an over-simplification to say that the lawyers’ theory is that any action that a group of citizens find to be bothersome can be called a “public nuisance” because the group of citizens is “the public” and they find the action to be “a nuisance.” They believe, if you are the company who is causing this nuisance, you can be sued for millions or billions of dollars.
They have used this cause of action to sue the oil and gas industry for allegedly causing climate change, to sue soft drink manufacturers for litter because consumers do not always dispose of plastic bottles properly, and to sue car manufacturers because it is allegedly too easy to steal their cars.
If the theory that a lawful activity can be declared a nuisance to the public, literally any activity that bothers a group of people can be the subject of a lawsuit for damages. It’s quite preposterous.
Regulation through litigation is unconstitutional. In Texas, the Legislature has the constitutional authority to make policy for the state. This end-around of the legislative process puts policymaking into the hands of judges and juries who are neither equipped nor authorized to do so.
S.B. 779 will prevent public nuisance actions pursued in Texas by any person if the lawsuit is related to:
- a lawful activity;
- an activity in a field the government already regulates for the safety of the public;
- a product or the marketing of a product.
I could go on and on about the importance of this bill—and probably will someday. But for now, I will say that Senator Middleton has filed an important piece of legislation that will rein-in a terrible abuse. We’ll work hard to help him pass it.
